Subrecipient

An organisation that receives part of an award from a pass-through entity and carries out part of the programme itself. It is decided by what the organisation does, not by what the agreement is called — a subrecipient makes programmatic decisions; a contractor delivers goods on the open market.

Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.

Also called Sub-awardee · Subgrantee

In detail

The classification has real consequences. A subrecipient is subject to the federal requirements passed down and counts toward audit thresholds; a contractor is not and does not. Getting it wrong in either direction is a standard audit finding.

The test is functional. An organisation that decides who is eligible for a service, measures whether the programme worked, and has its performance judged against the programme’s objectives is a subrecipient however the paperwork is titled.

Against a contractor

A contractor sells something it also sells to others, at market terms, and is judged on delivery. A subrecipient runs part of the programme and is judged on the programme’s objectives. Neither is a field here: we hold opportunities and the funders that publish them, not the downstream structure of an award already made.

How GrantTrove stores it

  • `elig_entity_types` tells you who a notice says may apply. It does not say whether a successful applicant will structure the work through subawards, because the notice does not say either.
  • The subaward glossary entry states the same boundary from the money’s side: we hold the award, not its onward distribution.

Common questions

Are we a subrecipient or a contractor?

It depends on what you do, not on the title of the agreement. Programmatic decisions and performance measurement point to subrecipient.

Do you list subaward opportunities?

Where a pass-through publishes a solicitation on a feed we have connected, yes — as its own opportunity, from that funder.

Does a subaward count toward a single audit?

Federal money received as a subrecipient counts toward the threshold. As a contractor it does not.